Tales of the 1st Royal Kaggeran Regiment
by defiasstone2
Summary: Based on a 40k RPG I am running, this details the story of Godwinne Marn, as the Jericho Reach is 'saved' by the Imperium after 5 millennia apart. Starting as an isolated world, as the conflict within the Reach mounts, the 1st Royal Kaggeran will understand the only truth in the 41st Millennia. There is Only War!
1. Hour Zero: Report for Duty

**A/N: To explain, this isn't actually an official story, as much as it looks like one. I have too many official stories as it is.**

 **I have introduced one of my friends to the Fantasy Flight Warhammer 40K series of booked based RPG games, and he has gotten scarily hooked. What was meant to be a nice way for me to distract myself from the fun with the house, has instead turned into a frantic attempt for me to keep ahead of the plot of our weekly sessions.**

 **To aid in my memory of what has happened in the story (as opposed to what I originally wrote), I have written this as something I can look back on for plot purposes. It was only after I wrote it I realised what I had done, creating another story when I already have far too many, but it is too late now XD.**

 **So I thought, publish it and see what happens. Worst comes to the worst, nobody likes it and it keeps it's original purpose quite nicely.**

 **The story is based in the Jericho Reach, and begins on the world of Kaggeran, which is a large Agri-world in the far north west of the region. We begin before the arrival of the Imperial Crusade that sweeps in to try and retake the sector, where Kaggeran's Schola Progenium facility is one of the few remaining 'lights' in a sector that has fallen into darkness and heresy.**

 **We will be following Private Godwinne Marn, and his exploits as part of the 1 Royal Kaggeran Guardsman Regiment. Given this is based in the Deathwatch universe, rather than the official Only War universe, we will also be introducing a Deathwatch Team as well at some point, but we have to get there first.**

 **As this is based off the game, if anyone likes the sound of the scenarios that happen, I would be more than happy to pass along the basic info for running it.**

 **Defias Out**

It was just past dawn, the light of Kaggeran's twin suns just breaking through the clouds, when Private Godwinne Marn strode through the halls of the training academy that had been his home for the last three years. Passing a pair of Training Academy officers, Marn made sure to follow regulations and stop to salute, despite the amount of gear he was carrying making the task remarkably difficult.

The two Lieutenants, dressed in the predominantly black dress uniform of the Royal Kaggeran Regiments complete with dark red lapels and linings, responded in kind with small approving smiles, the moving slightly in their passage through the corridors to make getting past them easier for him as he relaxed from the salute.

He was working his way towards one of the hangar areas that were scattered throughout the main body of the Schola Progenium Training Academy, which also served as Planetary High Command for the official Kaggeran Guardsman forces. When he had been picked from his fellows during Basic Training almost 4 years ago, Godwinne had honestly thought he had done something wrong, as the Rangemaster Sergeant ordered him to take a hastily written note to Captain Hollis.

"Private Marn, you are five minutes early, glad to see you aren't letting your training go to waste on your first day as a proper Guardsman of the Imperium." As he reached the doors of Hangar bay 5, Godwinne found the man in question waiting for him, the Captain dressed as always in his combat armour rather than his dress uniform.

"Captain Hollis sir!" Captain Hollis was a bull of a man, one of the tallest men Godwinne had ever met by at least 3 inches, and bulky enough that his armour had to be handcrafted for him as regulation gear just did not fit.

"At ease Private, given your earlier than expected arrival we will be able to get underway straight away. Get your gear stowed aboard." At almost 50, Captain Hollis was surprisingly scar or battle wound free, a single long scar down his cheek and into the body of his chest that was one of the Captain's favourite stories to tell whilst perusing sword and other close combat drills.

' _A Guardsman's best weapon is his lasrifle, the Emperor's gracious gift to us poor Guardsman that you should thank him for each and every day! That said, when defending against a Xenos sympathiser's broadsword, one should use the blade that the Munitorium has graciously provided each and every one of you. The Emperor does not look kindly upon those who break his presents, though he has given me a second chance to make it clear to all of you that anyone else who tries the same as me will not be so lucky!'_

Stepping through the archway at the Captain's instruction, Godwinne didn't have to think very hard in where he was meant to go, as there was only a single complete Valkyrie in this particular hangar. There were 3 other Valkyries in various states of assembly or repair littering the hangar, which was a poignant reminder that Godwinne was quite lucky to be getting airlifted to his posting with the Royal Kaggeran 1st Regiment.

Whilst Imperial Doctrine dictated that Guardsmen were to be taught on a 'need to know' basis, being separated from the Imperium for almost 5 Millennium meant that Kaggeran High Command had relaxed quite a lot of what was considered 'classified' or above now. This wasn't necessarily out of their desire to be 'open' or 'inclusive', but given the limited manpower they now had, if information was kept a secret then it would quite likely end up becoming forgotten or lost.

Though no-one would speak of what events lead to the withdrawal of the Emperor's main forces from the region, the briefing they all received as part of basic training made one thing clear if nothing else. The Imperium were trying to get back to Kaggeran, and the Jericho Sector in general, but foul Warp Magic and Heretical treachery had lead to the Sector being cut off from the Imperium.

Until the glorious day that the Imperium would return to reunite the Jericho Sector with the rest of the Galaxy, the faithful Progenium forces on Kaggeran _were_ the Emperor's sword and shield, and would do whatever they needed to do to keep their Beacon of Faith lit until that day came. It was for that reason that Governor King Karaz, of the nearby Hive World Argoth and in charge of Kaggeran as well as the other colonised planet in their system, had brought almost half of the primary Hive's PDF forces to Kaggeran.

Or at least, that was the official teachings. Though, given how keenly any questions regarding the establishment of the Kaggeran 'Monarchy' were avoided by the Schola Progenium teachers, Godwinne got the feeling that there was another reason behind the Governor's 'tactical redeployment'.

"All ready Private? Captain Hollis, I didn't realise you were... " Still, his was not the rank to be questioning ancient history, as the Pilot visibly panicked at the second Guardsman sat in the back of his aircraft.

The two of them weren't exactly uncrowded in the space, with several boxes of what Godwinne recognised as specialised ammunition and weapons strapped into the rest of the space of the Valkyries interior, which were manufactured in the Schola Progenium's fiercely guarded Manufactorum facilities deep underground the Progenium's main facility.

"Pilot Biliac, that is entirely the point of a surprise inspection… And if I think you are going to use your Comms unit to let that idiot Vaughan know we are coming, then I will throw you off this craft and fly us there myself. Am I understood?" Whilst Captain Hollis was considered a relatively relaxed and friendly Commander, it was understood by every single person who passed through the Progenium's halls that when the words 'am I understood?' passed his lips, he was _deadly_ serious.

"Of course Captain, not a word to the Pri-Colonel unless he specifically asks if you are aboard the Valkyrie…" Whilst not a complete promise, the restriction seemed specific enough that Captain Hollis found it acceptable, as he gave a gruff nod before settling back into his seat across from Godwinne.

Moments later and the Valkyrie's engines burst into life, the noise filling Godwinne's ears and blocking out everything else. As the Valkyrie exited the hangar, Godwinne found himself in awe of the scene below him.

Situated on the highest point of a large island just off the main landmass of Kaggeran, the Schola Progenium was stylised as a glorious fortress/cathedral cross, gothic architecture and towering spires mixed with defence emplacements and battlements in equal measure. Though Godwinne had no other experiences to base his view, he struggled to imagine that a more impressive building complex was possible, short of the Emperor's Palace on Terra of course.

The hill the Schola Progenium was based upon wasn't a mountain, but the large complex still dominated the skyline, as the Valkyrie passed over the training grounds and other facilities that made up the expanded grounds of the Complex. From the maps that the Progenium's adepts jealously guarded, the Progenium and the various expansions that occurred over the millennia covered almost 100 square miles, and that was ignoring the vast underground facilities where the majority of the heavy weaponry, vehicles and precious relics were kept.

Despite the size of the complex, the Valkyrie's speed soon had then jetting out over the surrounding farmland, tended for by the members of the Schola Progenium's unofficial '3rd Regiment'. Though the farmers and workers weren't officially part of the Kaggeran Progenia Guardsmen, each and everyone of them had still recieved basic training, meaning that if the call came they could fall back to the numerous 'muster shelters' spread throughout the farmlands and arm up.

Several minutes of travelling went by, over a mixture of farmland and the woodlands in which game and other animal were allowed to flourish, which was the other role of the 3rd regiment's troops.

"Nearly there… where… set down?" The pilot's call over the comms was somewhat mumbled by the noise of the engines and the wind, but Godwinne guessed that he was asking the Captain where he wanted to set down.

Leaning slightly out of the Valkyrie, Godwinne caught sight of what could only be the muster grounds of the 1st Regiment ahead. Rows upon rows of regulation tents and prefabricated buildings, optimising the space needed for nearly 5,000 troops, whilst maintaining enough space for the men and women of the regiment to move around easily during a potential attack.

"Private!" The yelling voice of Captain Hollis had Godwinne jerk his head back inside the Valkyrie, though thankfully it seemed he had not missed any other calls as the Captain looked amused rather than annoyed.

"Where… based?" Remembering his muster orders from this morning, Godwinne shouted as loud as he could, certain that the disrespect of the shouting was less than making his commanding officer struggle to understand him.

"1st company Sir!" He would have specified that it was the 3rd Platoon's 7th squad, but the angry look that crossed over Captain Hollis' face as he revealed his company stopped him in his tracks.

"1st… Pilot...Prin… Compound!" Hollis stood as he started shouting to the pilot once more, moving to enter the cockpit area with a thunderous look upon his face.

It was to Godwinne's surprise that they passed over the main body of the camp over the next couple of minutes, the rows of ordered and uniform tents morphing into an array of far more varied and sized tents, including a multi-coloured monstrosity that offended Godwinne to his very core. As the Valkyrie began to set itself down, not too far from the massive tent, Godwinne realised why Captain Holt was pissed.

Whilst the Schola Progenium's 2nd Regiment were composed and lead by the Schola's own officers, the 1st Regiment was a compromise that had been struck between 'The Kingdom of Kaggeran' and the Schola Progenium millennia ago. Godwinne didn't remember all of the details, but the 1st was 'lead' by a member of the Kaggeran Royal family instead of a normal Progenia Colonel.

In addition, two Companies of the 1st Regiment were predominantly raised from the _Nobles_ based in the City of Argoth Prime and it's surrounding towns and villages, supported by members of the Progenia primarily in Leadership and Specialised roles.

Godwinne had assumed that, given the Leadership of the Regiment was considered nothing more than a formality according to the Progenia teachers, that the two Argothian Companies would be lower tier Companies in the Regiment. Unfortunately for him it seemed, the 1st Company was in fact one of these mixed units.

Which meant he would have two or three of his brothers with him, the rest would be to quote Sergeant Marix:

' _A bunch of ass kissing snot bags, who get away with everything but murder…'_.

And that was one of the politer things his Drill Sergeant had to say about the former Hive Worlders, and pretty much every insult he had about a trainee's performance included them or the Royal family itself in one form or another.

"Private Marn!" Captain Hollis strode back through from the cockpit, jumping off the Valkyrie the moment it touched down and turning expectantly.

It took a moment, as grabbing and hefting his gear as well as his weapon was harder in a Valkyrie than in a dorm room, but Godwinne managed to get it done and jump down from the transport without making the Captain wait too long.

"I am going to go speak to Colonel Vaughan, as well as carry out some inspections along the way. You are to report to Sergeant Faydra Mord of the Third Platoon, and you are to ignore any instructions or attempted orders from anyone else other than her or another Captain. Am I understood?" Godwinne jumped to alert, stowing his lasgun on the ground leaning against his side so that he could salute.

"Understood Sir. Permission to ask for directions from other Guardsmen?" Captain Hollis shook his head, before pointing off to the North, where the edge of the 1st Regiment's camp was, a series of watchtowers indicating the official 'edge' of the Schola's encampment.

"Head North and then towards the River, Sergeant Mord's squad are an untrustworthy bunch of fuckers even by Argothian standards, so they are pitched right on the edge of the encampment where they can't cause much trouble. Remember this Private, they may be your squad, but unless they are Progenia then they aren't true Guard brothers of ours." Captain Hollis said all of this rather louder than he perhaps needed to, even as the pair of them walked away from the small landing area in the middle of the camp, causing more than one of the Argothian Guardsmen to glare in their direction.

"Sir, yes Sir!" And with that, Godwinne guessed he was meant to leave the Captain to his work whilst he carried out his orders.

Turning down one of the larger established roads that lead to the area Captain Hollis had indicated, Godwinne quickly began to see the stories he had been told weren't as made up as he had first thought.

There were several obvious games of gambling he could see as he walked up the path, the Guardsmen making no effort to hide their activities. And, judging by the sounds coming from one large tent he passed on his left, either Guardsmen were having sex with each other or the Argothians had snuck in some camp followers of a sort.

Godwinne knew that he had a sheltered upbringing for the most part, it was something that the Progenium had made clear even if they hadn't really elaborated on the 'realities' of life outside their walls, but there were so many things going on that his head was already starting to hurt at trying to comprehend the number of regulation breaches he would report to his Sergeant when he arrived at wherever his squad was based...

Then, just as he passed one of the watchtowers and was debating whether he needed to stop and ask a Guardsman for directions, the _smell_ hit him as an errant gust carried it in his direction. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, which did not help the urge to throw up the now persistent smell evoked, Godwinne now remembered exactly _why_ the limits of the camp were originally where they were.

The 'waste' from the Progenium was piped into what had effectively become a series giant cess pools to the North West of the Camp, where it was treated, filtered and recycled by the large water recycling plant he could see squatting on the edge of the River Gadaris. The smell was prolific, but the predominantly Westerly winds meant it usually wasn't an issue for those on the base… unless you were a bunch of city dwellers that needed larger than normal tents at least.

At the top of the small descent, which had been artificially created to defend the camp from Gadaris flooding into it during the wet seasons, Godwinne could see the large series of 'pits' in which the Progenium waste was stored in stretching away along the banks of the river, and thankfully the camp stopped before it actually reached them.

Not by much though, with the razor wire and fox holes stopping barely 200 yards from the nearest pit before following the edge of the treeline that headed in land, the defences seemingly last minute additions to the camp's defences. Where it was mostly ammunition storage and other non essential land out this far, Godwinne could see a cluster of Guardsman issue tents on a plot of land about half a mile from the nearest cess pool, near the first of the fox holes deployed facing the tree line.

"Someone in the Administratum must really hate me…" Godwinne knew it wasn't worth moping over his assignment though, and he would merely have to do what he could to make a good job of matters, to try and catch the attention of one of the other Company Commanders.

Breathing deeply in an attempt to bolster his courage, and regretting it a moment later as the smell made him choke once more, Godwinne moved down the nearly deserted path towards the little circle of tents that he suspected was to be his new home.

"Sarvus!" The cry shocked Godwinne into raising his rifle, the feminine voice filled with fury, before someone was bodily thrown _through_ the tent's back wall next to him.

For a moment, as the body of a Guardsman hit the ground with a thud and rolled rather unceremoniously along the ground, Godwinne honestly thought they might be under attack. That uncertainty lasted until another Guardsman stalked out of the new hole in the tent, the mark of an Imperial Guard Sergeant on her combat armour only adding to the terror the cold fury on her face invoked in him.

"I should have you flogged, then courtmartialed and then shot! It is bad enough that you are drunk when we are due to start a patrol mission in four hours, but if you try and grope me again I WILL ensure that you get thrown in a Cesspool as punishment, even your cousin the Prince won't save you from drowning then." Given the Sergeant was wearing her combat gear in a near immaculate manner, despite the fact she had just seemingly thrown a man a considerable distance given her relatively light frame, Godwinne took a guess and assumed she was a Progenia Guardsman rather than from Argoth Prime.

"Private Second Class Marn, reporting for assignment Sergeant!" He didn't raise his voice, given they were only ten feet apart it wasn't needed, but the Sergeant spun around as if he had just bellowed his introduction right in her ear.

She seemed to reign in her temper by the time she whirled in his direction though, and her face seemed to brighten up as she checked his gear.

"Progenia Guardsman?" Godwinne nodded and was surprised to see a smile appear on the stern woman's face, making him realised that she didn't actually look that much older than he did.

Apart from a few short strands of straw blonde hair that made it's way from beneath her combat helmet, the Sergeant would be considered a quintessential Kaggeran native, barely shorter than him and built in a light build that was considerably at odds with Captain Hollis' stature. Her gold flecked green eyes seemed to approve of him as she nodded her head off behind him.

"Looking for the 7th Squad I assume? I did ask for another Progenia recruit but I didn't think I would actually get one. Sergeant Freyda Mord, you can stand easy Private, I just have to finish reminding Private Savros here that he isn't 73rd in line for the Throne out here…" The mention of the Guardsman she had manhandled brought Godwinne's attention back to the man in question, just as he finished staggering to his feet.

"Don't know what you mean Sarge, I just wanted to _give a hand_ ha ha ha…" Godwinne wanted to hit the man already, and he wasn't entirely sure whether it was just because of his disrespect for their senior officer, or the grabbing motion he made as he completed his 'clever' pun…

"Please ignore him Sergeant, I will get him sobered up in time for patrol and out of your hair." The new voice came from a wiry individual, who looked the image of the seedy gambler types his mother had warned him about in her childhood stories, but she stepped forwards and elbowed the wind from Savros' lungs before he could do something else that would make the good Sergeant carry through her earlier threat without the slightest hint of dishonesty.

"Thank you Private Jessilea, I swear if it weren't for you I would have shot him months ago, damn the consequences." The newly named Jessilea beamed at the praise and went to salute, only for her elbow to crack into Savros' nose and send him tumbling to the floor.

"Sorry Savros, I didn't mean to do that, please don't get mad at me…" Despite her earnest apologies, Godwinne caught the slightest of sly grins on Jessilea's face before it morphed into concern, a sign that her clumsiness was perhaps slightly less accidental than her words implied.

"Private Marn, with me. I will show you the main camp, and then where your stuff can be put once I find your squad partner, she will show you the rest." With that, Sergeant Mord turned on her heel and strode back through the rent in the tent, not even pausing as she threw a comment over her shoulder.

"Private Savros, the cost of repairing your tent will be coming out of your allotment of amasec and other supplements for the next two months…" Even as Godwinne made to follow her, he could hear the drunken mumblings of Savros take a distinctly mutinous tone at her announcement, but there was no time to think on it further as he stepped through the improvised doorway.

The tent was obviously for two guardsmen, lightweight metal beds an obvious indication if nothing else, though one side of the tent looked like a group of children had decided to see how much destruction they can cause. Savros' he assumed, as the other side of the tent was immaculate, though he thought he could easily count more than normal requisitionable gear tucked away in various parts of the gear.

"As you probably heard Private, Private Savros' is a Royal family member, though so far down the list the Xenos would have to pretty much wipe us out for him to be in with the chance of inheriting the position. He was a childhood friend of the Prince though, so he thinks that offers him protection from pretty much everything, and Lieutenant Rogers agrees for the most part. Jessilea is a servant's daughter who was 'enlisted' to provide Savros with a servant. Mostly a good girl, but never ask her to hold a knife for you." The fact the Sergeant was so disparaging about her own men to a newcomer surprised Godwinne, he had always thought Sergeants tried to protect their squad's image even from their higher ups.

"I don't want to lie to you Private, this isn't going to be a cushy post if that is what you were hoping for, but it is well known that any Progenia who can make the cut in an Argothian Company is more than just your average Guardsman. We are here to show these… others how Guardsmen are meant to act…" Godwinne was tempted, for all of a fraction of a moment, to ask if throwing people through walls was considered 'how true Guardsman should act'.

"Understood Sir, I live to serve Kaggeran and the Imperium, which Company I do that in makes little difference to me." Godwinne wasn't quite sure he believed his own sentiment, but it was true enough on the basis of things that his doubt didn't enter his tone.

"A noble sentiment Private, we will see whether or not you maintain that optimism. Now, these are Privates Godwin and Victrus, along with Corporal Quinille." She gestured off to a trio of roughly dressed and presented Guardsmen, all gathered round the fire and cooking… something.

Godwinne didn't quite want to ask what the hunk of flesh on the fire actually was, and didn't get the chance as the newly named Quinille looked him up and down for a moment before speaking.

"I take 3-5." The strange announcement was quickly followed by the other two taking 0-2 and 6-8 respectfully, though Victrus looked disappointed about getting the higher numbers.

"Ignore them Private. Now, Private Jet should be over… here we are. Private Jet, Private Xandra." The Sergeant lead him off to the far corner of the the circle of tents, where a separate pair of tents were a small distance outside the general circle, one with the patch on the top of it denoting it as the Sergeant's own tent.

Sat on a pair of small chairs outside the tent were a young man and woman, both of whom jumped to their feet as the Sergeant addressed them, the small books they were perusing making their way back to the chairs when the Sergeant waved them to relax.

"This is Private Marn, to replace Private Horic after the incident last week. Private Marn, this is Private Regina Jet, fellow Progenia graduate who has joined us as the the Platoon Medic in training. Private Fortunus Xandra is probably the only Argothian I have met so far that hasn't done something that makes me want to shoot him, so I have him studying under Private Jet to make something useful of himself." Fortunus nodded his head in greeting, a slight redness on his face showing he was quietly pleased with the Sergeant's backhanded compliment, whilst Regina stepped forward and offered her hand in typical Progenia greeting manner.

"Nice to meet you Private, what number did Quinille give you?" The question took a moment to register, but I smiled and accepted the handshake I was offered before giving my somewhat confused answer.

"3-5, though he didn't expand on what he meant. Given what I have seen so far, I am assuming it is a bad thing?" Regina laughed at my comment, the sort of melodic laugh that encouraged others to join in with her, before nodding her head.

"Only if you believe them. Remember the 15 hour rule the instructors told us about?" I nodded once more, the first fifteen hours of combat were the most likely to kill a rookie Guardsman, and given the hint I took a guess at the rest.

"Number of hours before I get killed?" It was morbid, certainly, but it wasn't like Godwinne had come into this ignorant of what his likely exit path was…

"Number of minutes before you do something stupid, though they usually then do a second bet with number of hours till you get maimed or killed, I'm still only on my 3rd hour, so don't think you're alone in this little 'game' of theirs." I grinned despite myself, the way Regina was talking made it clear that she was more than happy to help him prove the three wrong on both accounts.

"As nice as this is, Private Jet can let you store your gear, and then head out the back and show him the lay of the land. I want him familiar with the defences and outskirts before we head out. Just because the Colonel doesn't respect the standard doctrines doesn't mean we will. Private Xandra, you're with me, I have a bunch of reports to take to the Lieutenant." Saluting, as was expected even if the Sergeant hadn't explicitly dismissed them, Godwinne waited until the Sergeant had left the area before relaxing a little with a sigh.

"Not exactly what you expected from your first day right? Come on, leave your stuff here for now other than your combat gear, we will take a walk along the edge of the camp. It will let me fill you in on the details without having to deal with the smell, and give you an idea of what the nicer side of camp looks like…" It sounded a hell of a lot better than unpacking his gear for the next hour, which fit with the Sergeant's orders, and now that it had been mentioned the smell was still burning the back of his throat and nose.

"Sounds like a plan Private Jet, thank you for taking the time to walk me around." Private Jet smiled before reaching into her pocket and pulling out a pair of things Godwinne had never thought he would be happy to see in his life.

"Call me Regina, nose plug?" With a joyful nod Godwinne quickly stuffed the two small devices up his nose, whilst it didn't completely stop the smell it dealt with the worst of it, though his voice gained a nasally edge he wasn't quite comfortable with.

They stowed his kit on the bed in the tent, before Regina led him round the tent and towards the lines of razor wire, the woman talking the entire time.

"The woods are quite heavily populated with animals and other critters, we make sure to kill off any predators that might get large enough or dangerous enough to threaten a Guardsman. The Lieutenant lets a squad go into the woods every second week, and if you have a good hunt you can trade any excess game with the other squads, so it is quite the sought after task. There are several paths into the woodlands, which is why there are the gaps in the razor wire, though each is guarded by a fox hole. Strange we haven't been hailed yet…" Godwinne was looking at the woods, taking in the sight of his new surroundings, which was the only reason he caught it in time.

The burst of red was the only warning he had, though his training kicked in and he dragged Regina to the floor, a bolt of red passing through where her head had been a moment before.

"Attack!" They were too exposed here, Godwinne's mind registered even as his eyes remained fixed on the woods, shadows of movement making it clear this wasn't a single attacker at work.

"Move, to the foxhole!" Regina nodded in response to his order, or he assumed that was what the movement he felt against his shoulder was, the woman breaking into a straight up sprint as Godwinne raised his rifle and sighted a figure he had seen moving at the edge of the woods.

There was no time to perform the breathing drills the Progenium taught to aid in accuracy, though he did remember to fire in short bursts rather than fully automatic. A trio of bolts flew across the short space between his position and the woods, the first two catching the figure in the chest whilst the third went over it's shoulder and slammed into a tree trunk.

He was rolling even as he released the trigger, knowing that his fire would attract a lot of the wrong type of attention, slipping into a crouch as he prepared to run to the foxhole. At least two bolts of las energy slammed into the place he had been lying, and as he forced himself to run at least a dozen others whizzed around him.

Thankfully whoever was shooting were terrible shots, otherwise he would never have made the forty yard sprint to the first foxhole. It was of a simple construction, a dug out hole which was elevated on the side facing the woods with a mixture of sandbags and compacted earth. Regina had already moved to the firing step, firing in rapid bursts for several moments before ducking back as Godwinne dived into the hole head first.

"Xenos sympathisers!" Trying to ignore the pain that his face dive into the earth had caused, Godwinne brought himself up from the floor, to find himself looking at one of the fox-hole's on duty Guardsmen.

Or at least, what was left of one of them, half of his face missing from what looked like a single bolt to the head, the remnants of his guard helmet melted at the edges of the contact point. Coldness swept through Godwinne as he came face to face with Death for the first true time, but the sounds of lasbolts hitting their cover made his training kick in, even if his mind was still dealing with the death of one of his fellow Guardsmen.

Stepping up to the firing point once more, Godwinne grabbed the periscope viewer that was near the base of the sandbag wall, which he could use to get an assessment of the situation before sticking his head over the parapet once more.

Raising the periscope and putting his eyes to the lenses, Godwinne found himself looking at a scene from his nightmares. All along the forest line, bolts of red lasfire were pouring forth in numbers that tactically meant a large scale assault was about to commence. Dropping the periscope and grabbing his lasgun, Godwinne was about to step up and shoot once more, when a strange whistling sound entered his ears.

"Incoming!" He would have paid it no mind, but Regina obviously knew something he didn't as she threw herself back into the base of the foxhole, dragging him with her.

Then the earth shook, and everything went to hell…

 **A/N: This is going to be an interesting one for me, primarily because i have never been very good at describing death and dying. And in the 41st Millenium, especially in a Guard Regiment, there is a A LOT of it.**

 **One of the main interesting points for this story, in my opinion at least, is that the Kaggeran Guardsmen will have a hell of a lot of a better idea of 'classified info' than the average Guardsmen. And once they get out into the main body of the Imperium, assuming that the game gets that far, then the questions they ask are going to get a lot of attention.**

 **Anyway, let me know what you think… Or don't, I just won't put any more up unless I think there is some actual interest XD**


	2. Hour One: Camp Attack

**Kaggeran and the Schola Progenium:**

 _From the Diary notes of Guardsman Godwinne Marn:_

 _They say Home is where the heart is, and as Homes go, Kaggeran doesn't seem to be a bad one to me. Once an Agri-world, exporting Flaxenwheat by the hauler load and replacing it with the detritus of half a dozen Star systems to keep the crop cycles going, now it was a rural haven for the Imperium in a dark and fallen Sector._

 _The Schola Progenium is the predominant remaining feature on the maps of Kaggeran, the various hangars and grain collection facilities around the planet having been disassembled by our forefathers in the first Millennia after the Fall. On an artificial island, at the point where the Vorix Canal split the Tireas Continent in two and met the Gordov Sea, the Schola Progenium Inner Sanctum is merely the uppermost of the three tiered fortress that has withstood the attention of marauders and Xenos raiders._

 _The Progenium Precept is the lowest and largest of these tiers, created less than a Millennia ago after the founding of the 2nd regiment. It houses the entire 2nd Regiment, as well as the 'non-combatant' farmers and workers who keep the Progenium fed and working, along with all the non-military and non-essential equipment used in the Progenium._

 _Where the Precept is guarded with a strong wooden palisade but little in the way of planned defences, the Enclave is a veritable impregnable fortress. I haven't ever seen one of the legendary fortresses of Imperial history, but artillery positions, anti-orbital batteries and walls almost 30 metres tall make for an impressive defensive positions._

 _The Schola Sanctum is hallowed ground, even those of us who have joined the Progenia Guardsmen and learned in the halls of the Enclave aren't allowed within its halls, except when escorted by the Schola Guardian Corps for the viewing of relics or other valuable documents that are a key part of our teachings._

 _There are rumours, as with everything on Kaggeran, that there is a much larger facility below ground, manned by robots and the tech-priests, which contains and manufactures great vehicles and weapons of war, for when the day comes and the Imperium returns to retake the sector. It's probably just Guardsmen gossiping, or propaganda to make the Argothians think the Progenia is more powerful than it actually is, but I hope that it is true so that we can use those weapons to retake the rest of our world from the warring Feudal tribes._

 _These tribes now section up the surface of the planet, like they have some kind of claim to Kaggeran's fields. We, or the Argothians in most cases, go out and deal with those tribes that seem to be going down the dark path of heresy when the need arises. But we are too few to fight all of them, and even if we retook the world we couldn't populate it effectively for at least several more centuries even if we went at it like Rubits._

 _So for now, Kaggeran remains a faint but persistent light in a dark and twisted shadow, that once called itself the Jericho Sector…_

It was like he had gone deaf, whilst hearing every explosion as if it were through a microphone directly into his inner ear at the same time. Every sense was screaming at his mind with the array of sensory data they were receiving, and Godwinne's brain was just unable to cope with it all, leaving him curled up in a ball in the foxhole with his arms curled up around his head protectively.

It felt like hours before his mind managed to gain control of the situation, the sounds of explosions and the resulting tremors still present as he pulled his hands away from his head and opened his eyes, but at least now they weren't echoing in his head as a constant cacophony. It was with more than a little shock and disbelief that he didn't find Regina next to him, and as he forced himself up into a low crouch, Godwinne saw her stood on the firing step.

Noticing a second dead Guardsman in the fox hole for the first time, this one caught in the bottom of his throat by a las wound that had almost decapitated him, Godwinne reached over and fumbled to remove the dead man's helmet. After his shaking fingers managed to undo the buckle on the helmet's strap, Godwinne pulled the helmet away, and regretted doing so as the force was enough to separate the man's head from his body entirely.

Doing his best to ignore the memory of the man's dull eyes looking up at him as the head rolled into the base of the foxhole, Godwinne moved up next to Regina and grabbed her shoulder to pull her back below the sandbags that acted as their cover. She looked his way with a sharp and pointed look, but all he cared about right now was jamming the helmet on her head. They hadn't done the two on duty Guardsmen much good, but it might protect her from any rogue shrapnel still flying around them.

"You're only on three hours, don't give the Argothians the satisfaction!" His shouted joke was a weak one, but it was enough to make Regina smirk slightly, before she stepped back up to the firing step.

Looking around for his lasgun, Godwinne noticed that the two Guardsmen both had been equipped with Longlas weapons, no doubt to aid them in scanning the woods. Whilst he wouldn't say he was the best sniper in the regiment, Godwinne had more than enough experience with the sniper type weapon to make it more useful than his standard lasgun.

Grabbing one from where it was leaning against the back of the foxhole, wincing as a particularly close rocket explosion sent dirt and earth tumbling onto him. Stepping up to the firing step, Godwinne did his best to ignore the little voice in his head that was bringing up the memory of the Guardsman shot in the head, and pointing out that the man had probably been doing exactly what he had been doing now.

The fire from the woods had died down somewhat, as the explosions and smoke no doubt made it quite hard for the attackers to see anything, but there were still more than enough targets for Godwinne to focus on. Looking at the woodland directly across from them, Godwinne could see several human figures stood at the edge of the woods, many of them not even bothering to use the trees as cover as they fired.

They were rough and ill kept, many of them dressed in leather or fur armour as opposed to proper ballistic or flak armour, and it was clear that most of them hadn't received any form of weapons training other than 'point at enemy and pull trigger'. Even as Godwinne pulled his head down for a moment as another explosion washed over their position, he had determined them as low priority targets at best.

Instead, as his eye returned to the scope, Godwinne focussed on those that had at least some semblance of Guardsmen equipment. These were the ones that were at least using the trees as cover between their scans of the camp, all of them bar two at least. One of them was using a large hand held device of some sort, pointing it unfalteringly in the direction of the camp behind Godwinne, whilst another was pointing and bellowing orders from next to him.

Both were dressed in flak armour, though the man holding the strange device wasn't wearing a helmet, whilst the other was wearing a stylised helmet with a plume of feathers sticking out of it. Lining up his scope on the one holding the weapon, Godwinne did his best to ignore the explosions and other noises from around him, breathing lightly as he altered his aim to account for the distance.

As he fired, a rock caught his head, causing his shot to go slightly wild, but as he hurriedly shifted to look down the scope once more, Godwinne saw the man staring at the remnant of his shoulder in shock, the longlas round obviously having caught it in the join between the flak vest and the man's arm guards, amputating the arm entirely.

Both the injured man and the man giving orders seemed to try and go for the device on the ground, the man's arm still firmly gripping it even as it pointed to the ground just in front of them. Breathing deeply, Godwinne fired again, catching the leader in the chest and blasting him off his feet.

Suddenly the rocket fire was no longer on the camp itself, and instead it was a lot more concentrated on them. Both he and Regina dropped back into the foxhole, and to Godwinne's surprise she grabbed the corpses and dragged them over them, just as the ground _shook_ and everything went black.

After several moments, where Godwinne wondered whether he had just died, he felt the movement of something next to him. Attempting to force his way up, Godwinne realised that the fox hole had just 'caved' and in effect buried the two of them under a foot of earth and sand. Thankfully it wasn't more than that, otherwise he would have struggled to get out.

Wrenching himself up, Godwinne realised their sandbag cover was pretty much gone now, but it had done it's purpose of protecting them from an otherwise lethal rocket or two. Crawling up to the edge of the now much smaller edge of their foxhole, Godwinne barely avoided getting his head blown off as sporadic fire from the woods peppered their position.

The rocket fire had died off considerably though, and Godwinne could only assume it was due to the man he had shot being a spotter or something, but rolling over to catch his breath he realised that the las fire wasn't all just firing into the camp anymore. There were bolts shooting out towards the woods now, not many of them, but the number seemed to be growing.

Looking around for the Longlas, as he hadn't brought it down with him when they ducked to the bottom of the foxhole, Godwinne found it off to his left, the barrel sheared off by a piece of red hot shrapnel the size of Godwinne's fist. With his preferred weapon destroyed, Godwinne hastily started grasping around in the bottom of the foxhole for his lasgun, which he had thrown in when he initially dove into the foxhole.

After grabbing one of the dead Guardsman by accident, and doing his best to ignore the wet feeling on his hand as he pulled back, Godwinne managed to unearth his weapon and scurry back to the edge of the foxhole. Without the scope it would be much harder to target the damned…

Godwinne's thoughts stopped for a moment as he looked at the destruction in front of him, the section of woodlands the attackers had originally been attacking his position from the scene of a concentrated artillery strike. Trees were either shattered or uprooted entirely, some of those at the edge of the bombardment area on fire from the shrapnel that had struck them.

He was dragged away from the series of craters, and the fact that amongst them were the remnants of the men he had sighted earlier were probably spread between them, by more fire from the woods off some distance in front of him and to his right. It was too far for him to shoot accurately with his lasgun, but Godwinne knew that wouldn't be a sufficient excuse for staying where they were and doing nothing.

"Cover me!" It seemed that Regina had the same idea he had, jumping out of the foxhole and ghosting forward as best she could up the gap in the razor wire.

Luckily the malfunction of their own artillery targeter had either killed all of the attackers in the nearest section of woods, or they had fled back into the woods, so despite his readiness Godwinne didn't need to actually fire his weapon before Regina ducked into a crater halfway through the razor wire.

It wasn't going to be big enough for the two of them, in fact it was barely serviceable as cover for Regina given her helmet was still easily visible out of the top, so Godwinne took a moment to determine where he was actually going to go himself. The open ground to the treeline wasn't exactly inundated with places people would call 'cover', and from Regina's position it was probably only 30 yards further to the nearest of the now fallen trees.

Taking a deep breath, both to fill his lungs but also in an attempt to calm the feelings in his stomach that were telling him a sprint into enemy territory was a VERY bad idea, Godwinne moved. He could have tried to stay low, but that would have slowed him down considerably, and if anyone happened to look over their way then he was doomed regardless.

As he passed a slightly shocked Regina at a full run, Godwinne was suddenly glad that the instructors at the Progenium had been so determined for them all to focus on their physical fitness. A couple of hundred yards didn't seem like much, but in full Guard armour and with his lasgun it was enough to leave him breathing heavily as he ducked behind the body of a fallen tree that had been thrown out of the border of the woodland by the artillery attack.

Shifting up so that he could look over the body of the tree and cover Regina's move, Godwinne heard her slide in next to him a moment later.

"At least you don't lack some balls under that armour rookie, though we better hope there aren't too many of these bastards." The heat of combat definitely brought out a different side to his fellow Progenia, either that or it was her exposure to the Argothians.

Even as Godwinne was coming up with his reply, he suddenly saw movement ahead of them and raised his weapon. Out of the trees came more of the clearly tribal warriors he had seen earlier, remnants of Kaggeran's original population who had degraded back to the equivalent of feudal warrior culture over the 5 millennia since the Fall of the Jericho Sector.

The Schola had never had a problem with them before now, other than sending out hunter killer teams to deal with any warlord that seemed to be falling down the dark path of heresy, or the witches and other psykers that awakened on the planet. He knew that there were in fact several 'Kingdoms' that traded or pledged allegiance to Argoth Prime, trading food and other specialised supplies for weapons or armour.

There were four of them, though only two of them were carrying lasguns that looked like they would malfunction at any moment, the others armed with a large axe and a spear respectively. Looking down to Regina, who had obviously realised something was wrong as she had her weapon ready and was looking at him, Godwinne quickly indicated 4.

Pointing to the far end of the tree, as splitting up would give them better arcs of fire as well as reducing the risk of them both being suppressed if they didn't manage to take down both of the gun armed tribesmen, Godwinne waited until she was in position before shifting up to look over the tree once more.

The two tribesmen armed with close combat weapons were working their way forwards, whilst the other two stayed near the edge of the 'clearing', either in an attempt to stand guard or more likely because they were higher ranking in whatever 'tribe' these people had come from. Gesturing towards the two close combat tribesmen from behind the tree trunk, and hoping that Regina was paying attention, Godwinne readied his weapon, thumbing the setting to Overcharge.

It would use more power from the lascell clip and therefore empty it faster, but the increased strength of the shots would be worth it if he could bring these bastards down quickly. Taking a moment to calm his breathing, Godwinne fired.

His first bolt caught the nearest man high in the throat, the lasbolt burning a hole from one side to the other with sickening ease, Godwinne shifting his fire as the man fell like a sack of Flaxenwheat. The second tribesman had excellent reflexes, as he was already ducking as Godwinne fired three rounds in his direction, two of them missing entirely and the third grazing his fur armour.

"Damn it!" Given Regina was firing, and bolts weren't firing in the direction of the tribesman now taking cover, Godwinne could only guess that his earlier instruction had been listened to.

Ducking behind the tree once more and shifting to the right, Godwinne heard the sound of lasfire hitting wood, no doubt the tribesman firing on his former position. As the trunk of the tree continued to dip, Godwinne ran out of room to maneuver without potentially revealing himself, so he stood up with lasgun at the ready.

The tribesman obviously saw him out of the corner of his eye, as he started trying to turn his fire, but Godwinne's burst of fire caught him twice in the chest before impacting his lasgun. The fur armour merely provided something to catch fire, as the lasbolts punched through it with little issue, and the bolt that hit the lasgun turned most of the barrel to scrap in an instant.

Guardsman regulations stated he should now go and make sure the tribesmen were dead before moving on, especially as Regina seemed to have dealt with her opponents as well, but some 6th sense was telling him to get back into cover right now. Even as he ducked, Godwinne felt something slam into the right shoulder of his Flak armour, the force of the impact knocking him off his feet.

His shoulder burned, with an intensity that far eclipsed the times he had burnt himself whilst operating in the Academy cantina, but the fact that he could still move his arm at all whilst scrambling for cover was a sign that it had thankfully only been a graze.

"Xenos!" Regina's angry cry gave Godwinne the forewarning that he needed, so he wasn't shocked as he peeked over his cover to see the yellow armoured humanoid firing its weapon in what he could only assume was Regina's position.

"Emperor guide my aim…" Face to face with his first non-human enemy, Godwinne found himself remarkably calm as he lined up his lasgun and fired, three bolts slamming into the things chest piece and left arm.

The Xenos didn't fall like its heretical sympathisers did, its armour obviously there for more than just show, though as it turned its fire back in his direction Godwinne noticed it's arm wavering a little. As the blue bolts of… whatever the Xenos was firing in his direction erupted from the things weapon, Godwinne dived to his left. Given what a graze had done to his armour, he didn't want to trust his survival to the branches and small trunk of the top half of the tree.

Given he could hear the sounds of branches snapping harshly behind him, Godwinne guessed he was about right with his assessment of his cover, coming out of his dive in an awkward half crouch, Godwinne brought his lasgun round just in time to see a lasbolt hit the thing in the helmet, sending it stumbling backwards.

Given the opportunity, Godwinne leapt up, pouring round after round into the thing even as it collapsed to the floor. Such was the fate of all Xenos, to be purged in the…

"Marn!" Regina's cry was joined with a punch to the gut, knocking the air out of his lungs and bringing him back to reality.

"I am sure the Emperor appreciates your enthusiasm, but it's definitely dead… And we need to get into better cover if we are going to continue this stupid maneuver." It was only as she moved off did Godwinne realise that the Xenos had been turned into a pockmarked and smouldering ash coloured mess, and his finger was still pulling the trigger on his gun despite it clicking dry.

Ejecting the clip, and storing it in his belt for later recharging, Godwinne suddenly realised he was still stood in the middle of the impromptu clearing that had been created, and that more Xenos could be approaching at any time. Sprinting to catch up with Regina, who had made it to the treeline that met the grassland leading to the camp, Godwinne realised that the sounds of explosions and gunfire had disappeared.

"No signs of more hostiles." The fact that Regina was speaking, rather than using handsigns, merely showed her confidence in her own statement.

Scanning the treeline for several moments, whilst doing his best to ignore the burning pain in his shoulder, Godwinne found himself wishing they had one of the auspex scanners with them. Whilst not as good as the ones kept in the Progenium vaults, the ones the 1st Regiment squads were given could still detect life signs up to 50 metres away, and further still if you had an experienced operator using it.

"So, we hold position?" Regina seemed as unsure as he felt, nothing in the manuals really covered this kind of situation, and given the enemy had already withdrawn they wouldn't be 'retreating' if they did move back to camp for more orders.

"Depends, you got your signal light on you?" Godwinned understood what Regina was getting at a moment later, and checking his armour pouches he found the fist sized lamp was still intact, though there were some cracks in the protective glass.

It was something the Munitorium officers would have a field day with when he handed it back in for a replacement, but for now it was functional and that was all that mattered.

"What do you want me to signal to the camp?" I hoped it would be a short message, as the method of covering and then uncovering the light with my hand would become uninspiring very quickly.

"Position Taken. Enemy withdrawn." Regina seemed to take a moment before continuing, her tone far more serious as she did another sweep of the treeline.

"Tau Xenos engaged…"

!"£$%^&*(_+

 **The Tau:**

 _From the training documents of Acolyte Stefanus Vogil, for the inducting of new Acolytes to the Horrors of the Galaxy_

 _Whilst many of the Imperium's enemies are as ancient if not older than the Imperium itself, there are some threats that are far younger in age that are just as insidious. The Xenos Tau are the most notable of these 'young' threats, their quickly advancing technology and single minded belief in a 'greater good' two of the factors that make them worthy of note. Though 'humanoid' in stature, the Tau have cleft feet and grey/blue skin that makes their Xenos nature all the more apparent._

 _The Tau are organised into Caste systems, where each Tau is born to perform a single set of roles and nothing else. The Castes we Acolytes need to concern ourselves with are the Fire Caste and the Ethereal Caste, the warriors and the rulers of the Xenos, and as with many of the Imperium's enemies, the head of the snake is the Inquisitions target._

 _The Ethereals have a power over their brethren that many would think bordered on mind control, and this link is both one of their greatest strengths but also a prime weakness for us to exploit. Whilst we have been unable to isolate the method these 'Ethereals' use to control their brethren, if the Ethereals of a Tau strike force can be taken out, there have been cases of the Xenos losing all semblance of order and training._

 _Some reports document that such purges have caused the Tau to abandon entire planets without further fighting, but this is something that I have been unable to find corroborating sources for..._

 **A/N: The wonders of creating a story based on dice rolling. Godwinne is the Player Character, if you want to talk about this in terms of RPG games, and as such the character is expected to perform better than the average guardsman around him, if only because of how stats are allocated.**

 **But when you involve dice, the idea of superiority goes out the window entirely, especially given how badly my friend usually rolls on important dice. So in that sense, the story hasn't followed the game precisely, primarily because the NPC Regina outshot Godwinne embarrassingly easily…**

 **So we have our intrepid Guardsmen pair having successfully assaulted 'an enemy defensive position', not bad for a Guardsman still in Hour 1… Now the rest of the Regiment needs to respond, with the Colonel Prince waiting in the wings to sweep in…**

 **For those not familiar with the Warhammer Universe, I am including 'info packs' at the start and the end of the chapter. Primarily, the beginning info pack will be about a place or the universe in general, whilst the end of the chapter will focus on the various parts of the Imperium's military forces, as well as the array of foul Xenos and heretics that can and will be arrayed against them.**

 **Hope you are enjoying what we have so far, I have at least another chapter to write up this week, and then I am running another session this weekend… I need to also find some time to actually write my other works...**


	3. Hour Two: Into the Woods

**The Jericho Sector:**

 _It's difficult to write about a place like the Jericho Sector, even when it has been my home my entire life. I've never been off world, but some of the Progenium Training Staff have been part of the Hunter Killer teams charged with strikes off world, and the lessons they have preached to us do not paint a positive image._

 _Heretics, Xenos and their sympathisers, dominate the former Imperial Worlds in the system. They fight and kill each other in droves, over the crumbling remnants of Hive World Argoth and the mining world of Ryloth, and according to the very rare trip taken beyond the edges of the the Argoth system, the Sector is even further down the path of damnation._

 _We are taught that it wasn't always like this though, the records of times before the Fall paint a picture of an Imperial Utopia, where the glory of the Emperor was espoused in glittering cathedrals and glorious cities. However, though the Emperor is mighty in his deeds and powers, his 'servants' are far less reliable._

 _Many of these 'loyal servants' were quick to turn their backs on the Emperor when the warp storms cut off the Jericho Sector from the rest of the Imperium, becoming little more than Warlords or heretics in their pursuit of personal power._

 _From our teachings about the Sector, there are only a few worlds to the galactic Northwest that have yet to completely fall into the path of Damnation, but even these worlds are more concerned with survival now rather than the Glory of the Imperium. The centre of the Jericho Reach has fallen to Chaos entirely, and though the heretics spend most of their time fighting each other, their reach to the more frontier worlds grows each century._

 _The Eastern frontier has become harder and harder to gauge over the recent decades, fewer and fewer traders and travelling mercenaries from that area that can be used to assess the state of the further flung worlds of the former Imperium. There is talk of strange creatures and mutating wildlife, though given how garbled many of the rumours are this is probably nothing of import._

 _The Western frontier has always been relatively stable, if dominated by petty warlords and their bands of murderous traitors, and as such Kaggeran has been relatively safe. The Kaggeran Guardsmen forces, as well as the Progenia's rather formidable anti-orbital defences mean that for the most part there are only the occasional raiding strikes on the far side of the planet._

 _Recently there has been rumour of a massive fleet arriving in the Galactic South West, though these reports have yet to be confirmed by the Hunter Killer teams..._

 **Schola Progenium Waste Treatment Plant, Day 1 Hour 1**

 **Vega Tranch, Progenia Corporal, 6th Company**

Corporal Vega wasn't entirely sure what he had done to end up with this shithole of an assignment. Then again, given how drunk he had accidentally gotten whilst off duty last week, he wouldn't be surprised that the story about getting into a fist fight with Sergeant Morgause over a game of cards was true.

Despite the fact that the Sergeant _had_ probably cheated, which was the accusation that had left to the fist fight, given Vega was a mere trooper had meant he had taken the brunt of the punishment meted out by their Lieutenant. So whilst Sergeant Morgause had been fined his drink rations and confined to his billet for a week, Vega had been put on the most hated duty the 1st Kaggeran could assign.

"Corporal, Engineer Filius hasn't reported in for over twenty minutes now. Can you go towards treatment pit Teritus and see if you can find him? Lazy fecker is probably having a nap or something." Vega sighed, having been staying as close to the main body of the facility as he could on his 'patrol route' in an attempt to avoid the _smell._

Situated about a mile and a half to the North North West of the 1st's mustering grounds, the waste treatment plant was based on the edge of the river. It was probably one of the most efficient and well maintained facilities on Kaggeran, but even it couldn't directly cope with the demand of the grown Progenia and its supporting villages.

So The Pits had been created to the south of the facility, stretching all the way to the mustering grounds in recent years. Given the open air nature of these treatment and storage pits, the stench of what was contained inside was almost overpowering, even with decent filtration plugs the Progenia provided.

"On my way Sergeant." Vega knew better than to try and protest, even though the other four Guardsmen 'on duty' were no doubt nice and smell free inside the guard room of the treatment facility.

Turn towards the woods at the edge of the facility, as the extra distance would be worth reducing the intensity of the stench a little bit, Vega paused for a moment, his eyes catching a flicker of movement inside the tree line. Unstrapping his lasgun from where he had been carrying it on his back, Vega thought about calling it in, even as he moved uncertainly in the direction of the treeline.

The trees had been cut back almost fifty metres from the closest building, and by the time he had reached half the distance Vega was glad he hadn't as there wasn't a sign of anything out of the ordinary. The Argothians got on his case enough for being a Progenia, the last thing he needed was stories of him being a scaredy cat as well.

Besides, it was probably just a squirrel or something, there were absolutely no native predators of Kaggeran left on the Progenium isle, they had been hunted to extinction centuries ago...

*rrrtt* *click* *click-click*

The sudden noises from inside the woods made his instincts start screaming at him again, a rustling sound from the treetops making him look up towards it as he reached for his micro-bead.

"By the Emperor!" Looking up allowed him to catch sight of a strange humanoid leaping out of the foliage, the creatures arcing leap covering far more distance than should be feasibly possible.

Vega didn't have time to think, instincts kicking in that probably meant his death was only moments away. Even as he raised his weapon with one hand, to point in the direction of the creature that had landed less than ten metres from him, Vega activated his micro-bead.

"Xenos at the…" Even as he shouted his warning to the remaining Guardsmen, Vega had raised his weapon and fired, red bolts of death spitting out towards the creature.

But with superhuman agility, the creature darted towards him and to the side, avoiding his fire with terrifying ease. It was wielding a strange bone like pickaxe, and in the time it took Vega to say those four short words, it was inside his guard with the pickaxe swinging towards his face...

 **1st Royal Kaggeran Mustering Ground Northern perimeter, Day 1 Hour 2**

 **Godwinne Marn, Progenia Private Third Class, 1st Company**

"What do you mean there are Xenos on Kaggeran? There have not been off world invaders since my Grandfather annihilated the heretical raiders on the Plains of Bakkor!" Doing his best not to flinch as Regina applied burn gel to his shoulder wound, her medical training coming in use even with her personal med-kit destroyed in the rocket attack, Godwinne found himself focussing on the shouting of Captain Aries Vaughn.

Whilst Godwinne would have liked to claim it was out of professionalism, but as he watched the black haired Captain of the 1st Company questioning the Lieutenants in charge of the Northern and Eastern Perimeter, Godwinne knew he was simply doing it to avoid looking at the remnants of what had ever so briefly been his posting ground. Whilst the majority of the attack had actually struck supplies and other equipment rather than the main body of the camp, Squad 7 hadn't been as lucky, given it's separated posting.

After being relieved from the edge of the forest by a group of Argothians in the First Company, many of whom were at best half dressed in their flak armour and looking like they had just come off a week's leave, the pair of them had been ordered to report to their Sergeant for further orders. With that in mind, they had headed back to their billet, which was where Godwinne found himself thankful for his shoulder wound.

"Private Jet, I am going to need your assistance here!" The call came from Corporal Ghizera, the 1st Company's official medical officer, the surly Argothian working with his assistant on Jessilea, whose lower leg had been the first thing Godwinne had found when they had hurried back into the burning and wrecked circle of tents.

"Go on Private Jet, I can bind the wound from here, though I am sure the Colonel will want a report once he has finished shouting…" Sergeant Mord sounded even more exhausted than Godwinne felt, though given she had been heading the damage control operations as well as identification of the rest of their squad it was hardly surprising.

Despite losing her leg just above the knee, as well as a piece of shrapnel the size of Godwinne's fist piercing her stomach despite her flak vest, Jessilea was the lucky Argothian in Squad 7, in the sense that she had survived the surprise attack. Savros' body had absorbed the worst of the rocket explosion that claimed her leg, the 'Royal' contender's body littered with shrapnel and his head half removed from his neck by a piece of shrapnel, which had also scored a bloody wound along the side of Jessilea's face.

What happened to the other three Guardsmen isn't something that they could immediately discern, the number of rockets that fell in the attack meant their body parts had ended up being scattered beyond the confines of the tent circle. But, given the amount of blood and body parts they had found so far it wasn't necessary to perform complete identification, the fact they had been together before the attack enough for Sergeant Mord to declare them KIA.

"Apply pressure to the gauze Private, you definitely got lucky given the state of your armour, these Xenos weapons are no joke…" Following her orders with his free hand, Godwinne knew that Sergeant Mord wasn't just referring to him when she talked about the Xenos and their weapons.

Blood and dirt now covered her previously immaculate guard armour, and even as Sergeant Mord moved over him to wrap the bandage around his chest, half a dog tag with the letters 'Xan' dangled from her neck in addition to her personal tags.

"What do you mean there were survivors!" The Captain's shout was almost disbelieving, before one of the Lieutenant's said something that seemed to make the man's mind up for him.

"Well get into those woods with your Platoons Lieutenant Flax, Lieutenant Balec! Find those damn sympathisers and bring them back here for interrogation! Now!" The Captain stormed off further into the camp without further comment, Sergeant Mord lifted him to his feet with an arm a moment later and finished tying off the dressing.

"That's us Marn, go grab your lasgun. Private Jet can stay here and help with the wounded, but we don't have such a reason not to join the rest of the Platoon." For a moment Godwinne thought about protesting given his injury, but as Jessilea started screaming once more he decided not to make an issue, the sound of Corporal Ghizera's saw beginning to cut through flesh and bone a good enough reason to want to go anywhere else.

"Sergeant Mord, given your squad is mostly KIA, I need you to round up the rest of the 3rd Platoon. We have about half of them here, so I will take them and support Lieutenant Flax." This came from the rather imposing figure of Lieutenant Horatio Balec, who Sergeant Mord had helpfully informed him was the man in charge of their platoon.

He wasn't a tall or broad man, in fact Godwinne would normally have thought him as nothing more than an average Argothian, if it weren't for the fact that at least half of his face was composed of high quality cybernetics. These cybernetics included a glowing red eye, which was the rarest of the cybernetics that could be given to injured Guardsmen, so for Lieutenant Balec to have one meant he was either well connected or _highly_ valued to the higher ups in the regiment.

"Sir." Godwinne did his best to follow his Sergeant in saluting, the pain of his wound causing him to wince despite his best efforts.

"Dismissed Sergeant. Private, walk with me." Sergeant Mord looked like she wanted to say something, but Lieutenant Balec's cybernetic eye flashed for a moment and she snapped to attention before marching off.

"You are fresh to the 1st, aren't you private?" The Captain set a blistering pace towards the edge of the encampment, using hand gestures to guide his three Sergeants to their squad positions with remarkable ease.

"Yes sir. Arrived this morning with Captain Hollis." It seemed that the Lieutenant was planning on having him accompany him in the recee directly, as they lead the thin black line of Guardsmen towards the woods.

"Off to a good start then, though the Captain isn't pleased that a fresh faced Progenia is showing up his 'vaunted' Argothian troops. Take the left with Sergeant Taelish and Private Aloysius. Chances are the tribesmen are long gone, but unlike Lieutenant Flax, I am not one to take chances when I don't need to." Looking over to the East, where the other Lieutenant had moved off to with his platoon, Godwinne could see what Lieutenant Balec meant.

Whilst the half strength 3rd Platoon under Balec was in formation and with weapons at the ready, their sister Platoon was moving to the trees in incoherent clumps, with many of the Guardsmen lighting Lho sticks or finishing drinks as they did so.

"Welcome to life under 'The Taskmaster'. Given what happened to the 7th squad, it seems that the Lieutenant is taking you under his gaze Private…" The words came from the man with the Sergeant's marks on his shoulder pads, the man not even trying to keep his voice down as Lieutenant turned to the man on his otherside, who was hefting around one of the few portable comm-units that the 1st had managed to keep running.

"Thanks Sergeant… I think…" Even as they reached the treeline Godwinne could see a potential reason for Lieutenant Balec's nickname, the Guardsmen splitting into small groups to move into the woods in an ordered fashion.

Half of them had sprinted the last twenty yards to the woods, taking cover in the nearest trees and immediately sweeping deeper into the woods as their comrades moved up. Moving up with the other two men, Godwinne wasn't particularly surprised when Private Aloysius slammed into his tree hard enough for the entire thing to shake.

Whilst for the most part Argothians were smaller than their Progenia kinsmen, those that had interbred with the local tribesmen were the exception, and Aloysius was the exception amongst those exceptions. Standing at just under 6 and a half feet tall, and so heavily built that a special set of armour had needed to be commissioned, Aloysius was by far the largest of the Guardsmen in the 1st's ranks.

"Well, whilst I would love to send Aloysius forward to scout, I don't think we want the enemy to hear him coming from 100 metres away. That means we are up Private, with me." Sergeant Taelish was already moving forwards by the time Godwinne realised that he was the one being ordered.

Ignoring his shoulder as best as he could, Godwinne moved forwards at a ducked run, seeing half a dozen other Guardsmen moving in the same manner up and down the line. Before he made it another ten metres into the woods, Godwinne had to slow down as the undergrowth thickened and threatened to take his feet out from under him.

It was much darker underneath the thick foliage of the trees above, making Godwinne wish that the Regiment still had access to the night vision instruments they had been shown how to use in training. However, there were barely enough left for small unit training at the Progenia given the wear and tear of time and degradation, so he would have to rely on his natural low light vision instead.

It took several moments, as he finally caught up with Sergeant Taelish and dropped to one knee to scan the surrounding woodland, for his eyes to begin to adapt properly. With the shadows becoming a little ominous, Godwinne found himself a little more at ease, even as he caught sight of Sergeant Taelish gesturing with his hand out of the corner of his eyes. Focussing on his temporary commander once more, Godwinne easily followed the set of hand signals the Sergeant was giving him.

 _10 metres, cover. 50 metres, stop._

Moving forwards as quietly as he could, Godwinne winced as he heard roaring laughter coming from his right, no doubt Lieutenant Flax's Guardsmen judging by the professionalism of the 3rd Platoon so far. Still, the noise in general made moving quietly through the woodlands much easier for him. Remembering his recon lessons from the academy, he never shifted at faster than a march as he ducked from one tree to another, eyes peeled and deliberately unfocused as he watched for any sign of movement in front of him.

Reaching his estimate of 10 metres, Godwinne dropped into a crouch next to some razor weed, the fast growing and dangerously sharp plant becoming more and more prominent as he looked further into the woods. Despite its thorns, that would easily open up wicked wounds on those the unwary, the leaves of the plant were remarkably nutritious. Between that, and the fact that it took less than a week to grow to its full size, it was one of the staple food sources for the animals and other denizens of the woods on Kaggeran.

For some reason, recalling his unofficial learnings about the native plant and animal life on Kaggeran left him with a troubled feeling in his gut, which he couldn't quite explain. As Sergeant Taelish moved past him, the Sergeant moving with a grace and ease that showed the man was quite at home in the woods, Godwinne could hear the rest of the platoon moving slowly up behind them, the occasional thud of Private Aloysius impacting a tree the loudest noises they were giving away.

In comparison, the sounds of the 2nd Platoon had decreased slightly, though that was probably as much due to the sound dampening quality of the woodland as much as anything else. Seeing Sergeant Taelish drop into a crouch in front of him, Godwinne began to move forward once more, moving between the razor weeds carefully.

Whilst the thorns wouldn't come close to piercing flak armour, there were enough areas on his leg armour that a thorn could slip into that it was best to avoid tempting fate altogether. It wouldn't work for much longer though, as Godwinne could see an almost continuous line of full grown chest high razor weed directly in front of them. Slipping past Taelish, who had no doubt also seen the obstacle as his face was set into a frown, Godwinne looked to the left and the right to see if he could see a sign of where the tribesmen would have gone during their retreat.

Given their much lighter armour, the tribesmen would have needed to avoid the razor weed altogether, otherwise they would have suffered casualties before even reaching the 1st's encampment.

Slipping between the last two patches of razor weed before the large clump, Godwinne was surprised how easy it had been to do so even as he slipped into a crouch, he had expected to have been snagged on at least one thorn. The gut feeling from before returned, and it took precious seconds for Godwinne to connect the thoughts of the two occasions together, looking back at the weed bushes that he had just passed with a rising feeling of dread in his stomach as his free hand felt something sticky on his chest armour.

"Why are you looking back Private, just because the 2nd are making enough noise to…" Sergeant Taelish's whispered reprimand cut off as Godwinne jerked back to his feet, free hand flipping to the most urgent sign he could think of as his brain finally put the pieces together.

 _AMBUSH!_

The two razor weed patches he had just passed through, and which he backed through again with his eyes peeled on the thicket in front of them, had not snagged him because _every_ thorn on them had been removed. Removing the thorns would have made these plants almost irresistible to the local wildlife, which was why it was a tactic that was used occasionally by foraging Guardsmen hoping to score some extra meat rations.

But to remove _all_ of the thorns was far too time consuming to be worth it as potential bait, the lack of damage to the plants from local wildlife feeding showed there was something keeping the wildlife away, and given the sticky sap that covered his armour, this defanging had been done very recently.

Suddenly there was a shout from their right, which was cut off almost as soon as it sounded, and that seemed to be the cue for hell to break loose. From the wall of Razor weed he had seen in front of them, which had no doubt also been meticulously dethorned as part of the set up to this ambush, there was a roar as dark shapes burst forwards.

"AMBUSH!" The cry was probably pointless, and merely attracted attention to himself, but Godwinne hoped it gave enough warning to the rest of the Platoon as he fired his rifle at the nearest of the emerging tribesmen.

Two of the three rounds he fired caught the man in the upper chest, burning straight through the fur 'armour' the man was wearing and sending him toppling to the ground. A burst of fire from his left signalled Sergeant Taelish getting into the action as well, the man's single shot catching a tribeswoman in the lower part of her face, the woman falling to the ground screaming as more and more dark shapes appeared.

There were too many of them, in the first few moments a dozen had appeared from the bushes, and judging by the movement of the razor weed there were more to come. Thankfully, his twigging onto the ambush had meant he and Sergeant Taelish were about 15 metres from the ambush site when it was triggered, which was more than enough room for them to get off their initial shots before falling back.

"Back to the others Private!" Godwinne needed no encouragement, slipping a grenade from his pouch and tossing it behind them as the pair began to run, the sounds of combat and screaming around them making it clear that some of the other scouts hadn't been so lucky.

*Bang*

The sounds of the grenade exploding, and the pained cries of the tribesmen were music to Godwinne's ears, and he risked looking over his shoulder to see whether they had made any ground versus their pursuers. That instinct saved his life, as he saw the bolts of blue plasma streaming in their direction, but the first slammed into Sergeant Taelish's back even as Godwinne tried to pull them both to the ground.

"SERGEANT!" Obviously they were close enough to the rest of the Platoon to be easily visible, the roar from Private Aloysius enough to make Godwinne's neck hairs stand on end, even as he moved to heft the Sergeant into a position he could carry him.

"Go!" The Sergeant was not only alive, but still conscious it seemed, though his attempt to push Godwinne away from him was almost as laboured as his voice.

"Not without you Sergeant." Though he had only known the man a couple of minutes, Godwinne found that he quite liked the man, for an Argothian.

Rolling to feet, Godwinne grabbed the man's still extended arm and began dragging him back towards the lines as fast as he could. Sergeant Taelish seemed to realise he wasn't going to win the argument, something that Godwinne was sure he would be rebuked for if the man survived to the end of the day, and instead raised his lasgun unsteadily with his other hand and began firing back towards the tribesmen.

More blue bolts of plasma flew around them, and Godwinne winced when one passed so close to his head he could feel the heat coming off it, but before he could worry about being a sitting duck any longer the rest of the Guardsmen caught up with them. Turning as Aloysius charged past him, the behemoth of a man obviously having caught some of the razor weed given he had several sections of scratched flak armour, Godwinne was about to put the Sergeant into cover when he realised how _close_ the tribesmen had gotten.

He barely had time to release Sergeant Taelish so the man was leaning against a tree, before he had to dodge out of the way of a spear thrust at him by a beserk looking bearded tribesman. Bolts of red were flashing around them, no doubt from the other members of the squad, but Godwinne had no time to think on that as the tribesman recovered enough to try and stab him again.

Luckily, spears were similar enough to bayoneted rifles that the close combat training Godwinne had received would be useful. With no time to try and and draw his sword, or attach his bayonet to his lasgun, to negate the reach advantage the spear wielder had over him, Godwinne instead dropped his lasgun.

Thinking he saw an advantage, the tribesman viciously stabbed forward as hard as he could. Godwinne shifted to the side, the blade of the spear catching slightly on his chest armour as he let it pass under his arm before trapping the haft of the weapon between his arm and his chest and jerking it towards him. The tribesman, having over extended his reach to try and take advantage of Godwinne's lack of weapons, was pulled forward remarkably easily and stumbled to regain his balance.

The tribesman's attempts ended quickly however, with Godwinne's bayonet thrust straight into his throat as Godwinne released the spear from his grip and closed the distance. Yanking the spear from the dying tribesman's hands, Godwinne twirled it like one of the quarterstaff's the trainees were trained with, taking the moment of peace to work out what the hell was going on.

The tribesmen had obviously counted on getting amongst them, as they were almost exclusively armed with melee weapons from what Godwinne could see, though there were some Xenos still out there judging by the plasma fire that had caught Sergeant Taelish. There were at least three tribesmen for every Guardsman, though thankfully the density of the trees and the thick underbrush were for the most part negating their number advantage.

Still, as one of the other Guardsmen nearby fell back with a spear buried in his gut, Godwinne knew this wasn't the time for thinking. Hefting the spear once more and then switching his grip, Godwinne took two steps before throwing the length of wood towards a massive tribesman currently engaging Aloysius.

Thankfully his aim was true enough, though he caught the tribesman in the hip rather than the upper chest, the man collapsing to the ground with a gurgle as Aloysius knocked another tribesman back by using his lasgun almost as a bat. Crouching slightly to grab his fallen lasgun, Godwinne brought it up and was firing before it even reached his hip, cutting down another tribesman standing over Sergeant Taelish with axe raised high.

"On me! For the Emperor!" The shout from behind him made Godwinne aware of Lieutenant Balec's proper entry into the chaotic melee, just before the man's fighting prowess made it clear to everyone in the area.

The first tribeswoman fell even as she turned towards the Lieutenant, the man slipping inside her guard and opening her throat with a remarkably short sword. Even as the woman reached up to vainly grab her throat in an attempt to stop the eruption of blood from the wound, Lieutenant was past her and opening the guard of a young man who barely looked in his teens.

Godwinne took this all in less than a second, a cry of pain from nearby causing him to turn his attention back to the other fighting. Aloysius was on the ground, cradling his shoulder that showed the same burn wounds that Godwinne was intimately familiar with, and with the steadily decreasing number of tribesmen around them he could see the perpetrator.

Decked in the same yellow and red armour as the Xenos before, Godwinne saw the figure stood not far from where the ambush had begun, along with a tribesman who looked far older and far better equipped than the ones they had been fighting just now. Raising his lasgun as he saw the filthy Xenos pointing his gun at the injured Guardsman, Godwinne fired whilst moving forward. The Xenos dodged almost effortlessly, though one of the lasbolts caught what Godwinne assumed was the tribal leader with a glancing blow to the arm.

With Aloysius safe for the moment, Godwinne dodged an attack from one of the remaining tribesman, firing a lasbolt at point blank range into the man's belly as he continued past him without stopping. Given the Xenos was now point his rifle at him, not getting caught up in the melee seemed like a very good idea. The first plasma bolt filled the space where Godwinne had been moments before, and judging by the impact sound and the thud it had hit the tribesman he had just shot in the gut and put him down properly.

The next two slammed into the tree Godwinne managed to scramble behind, the sounds of burning wood making it clear that his cover wouldn't last very long at all, not that he was planning on staying in cover. Running out to the side, Godwinne noticed that the Xenos was slower to react to his sudden movement than would be expected, the tribal leader filling the void this delayed reaction caused by firing his own lasgun towards him.

The Emperor was with Godwinne though, as the leader was a terrible shot and too focussed on trying to gun him down to dodge his return fire, one shot catching the elderly man just above the left eye. Rolling into cover behind another tree as the Xenos began to fire once more, Godwinne took a moment to look back at the rest of the combat, in case he won his own duel only to be stabbed in the back by vengeful tribesmen.

Aloysius was back on his feet, and seemed to be taking his pain on the tribesmen using their own weapons, a massive hammer in his good hand splitting open a tribesman's skull after shattering the weapon raised to block it. Judging by the growing pile of bodies surrounding the massive Guardsman, Godwinne couldn't help but mentally note to avoid getting on the giant's bad side.

The remaining tribesmen were being steadily overwhelmed, at least in this little pocket of fighting, the Guardsmen's training and better equipment overcoming their surprise and numbers advantages. Though as another plasma bolt skimmed the bark of the tree Godwinne was hiding behind, he was reminded that he had a Xenos to kill/capture if they were going to walk away from this with heads held remotely high.

"Emperor guide my hand!" Ducking out the opposite way to the path he had taken from the previous tree, Godwinne was pleased to see the Xenos track the wrong way for a moment, obviously having expected him to try the same trick twice.

Firing twice, one lasbolt catching the Xenos in the arm as it was forced to dodge rather than aim and fire it's own weapon at him, Godwinne closed the distance before it could recover.

Flinging his lasgun at it's face as he charged into combat, Godwinne was pleased to see the improvised projectile knock the Xenos off balance as he drew his sword and brought it down on the elbow joint of the Xenos' arm that was holding its rifle. The sword didn't fully penetrate the armour, but the cry of pain made it clear the blow had hurt the Xenos even as it tried to bring it's rifle to bear.

Realising the armour was too tough to pierce directly, Godwinne instead brought the pommelled hilt of the blade up and smashed it and his fist into the Xenos' visor, sending the thing tumbling to the ground. A bolt of plasma launched from it's rifle as it fell backwards, but it missed Godwinne by several inches and flew up into the canopy.

Slamming his armoured boot down onto the thing's wrist, which judging by the cracking noise probably broke the bones in the thing's hand quite effectively, Godwinne pointed his sword at the joint between the things helmet and chest armour. The threat was obviously quite clear, as the Xenos stopped struggling a moment later and raised it's free hand submissively.

Unable to take his eyes off the Xenos, in case it tried something or had a pistol or blade hidden somewhere, Godwinne could only hope that it was his fellow Guardsmen that had won the day as the fighting behind him stopped.

"Private Aloysius, get Sergeant Taelish back to camp right now. Corporal Marcharius, take three men and reinforce the men towards Lieutenant Flax's position, no doubt they are faring far worse than we are. The rest of you, care for the wounded and make sure any tribesmen are disarmed before we bring them back to camp." The sound of Lieutenant Balec's voice lessened Godwinne's worries, even before the sounds of someone moving behind him preempted a hand being placed on his shoulder.

"Impressive work Private, this one is obviously important if the Xenos equip them with their own equipment. Are you sure this is your first day at this?" It was all Godwinne could do not to slump in exhaustion as the adrenaline of combat began to leave his system, the pain and wetness of his shoulder making it clear he had probably worsened his existing wound considerably.

Regina was not going to be happy with him for this…

!"£$%^&*()_+

 **Schola Progenium Waste Treatment Plant, Day 1 Hour 2**

 **?, Kroot Shaper of the 5 Paths Kindred**

The attack had been quick and ruthlessly effective, the human defenders weak and arrogant in their superiority and that had made it easy for them to be overcome without any injuries to his pack. Their flesh had been tasted, and though not particularly beneficial, had been potent enough for dealing with the youngblood's appetites.

This pack would be withdrawing when they had had their fill, as the chances of the feral human's winning against the defenders inland was almost impossible. But for now, he had other packs to ready on the mainland. The Ethereals had paid his Kindred well for their services, and he was never one to disappoint.

Grabbing one last piece of flesh from the pile of corpses they had made of the defenders and those that worked this place, he bit off a piece before walking off towards the shoreline. He could have a snack whilst working though, nothing wrong with experiencing the benefits whilst on the job…

 **The Kroot**

 _Where as the Tau are reliant on their technology to be a threat to the Emperor's subjects, they are not above subjorning other Xenos races to their false belief in 'The Greater Good.' The most prolific of these subject species is also the most mercenary in following their Tau leaders commands, the insidious Kroot._

 _The Kroot are in the eternal pursuit of a single thing, their genetic evolution through the devouring of the dead, taking any advantageous genetic sequences and evolving to become better hunters, better killers._

 _Kroot are formed into Kindred, usually made up of dozens of smaller packs in various different levels and types of evolution, under the command of one or more Kroot Shapers. These Shapers act as the leaders of the Kroot, not only on the battlefield, but also in choosing which flesh and which evolutions the Kindred are to consume. It is these Shapers that ensure that their Kroot brethren do not end up evolving themselves into over specialised creatures that cannot survive outside certain worlds/environments._

 _In their pursuit of 'offerings', Kroot are known to range deep into Imperial Space as Mercenaries, and it has been known for weak minded Imperial Governors to buy off these Xenos to fight their battles for them. The only creatures that the Kroot are known not too feast on are the Tau themselves, which matches up with their refusal to ever meet the Tau on the field of battle._

 _On the battlefield, the Kroot are masters of ambush and close combat, though the methods for fighting varies from Kindred to Kindred. With superhuman agility and the ability to leap over a dozen metres from standing with ease, the fact that the Kroot use seemingly primitive weapons makes them no less deadly to the normal humans of the Imperium. To engage a Kroot in close combat out of choice, is to quite literally dance with death…_

 **A/N: I have unfortunately been lazy as of late, letting my work on the house be the excuse to not write anything, and I even dropped the weekly game due to my other commitments. I am working on getting out of the Winter Laziness I have fallen into, both in terms of getting this back on track as well as working on my other stories.**

 **Am I explaining enough, too much, or not enough? Let me know guys!**

 **Defias Out!**


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